美国宇航局利用Claude人工智能为火星上的毅力号探测器规划行进路线。

内容总结:
美国国家航空航天局(NASA)近日首次利用大型语言模型为火星车规划行驶路线,标志着人工智能在深空探测任务中的应用取得突破性进展。
自2021年登陆火星以来,“毅力号”火星车已创造多项历史纪录。去年12月,该火星车在杰泽罗陨石坑区域成功完成了一段由人工智能公司Anthropic开发的Claude模型规划的路线。这是NASA首次使用大语言模型操控这台汽车大小的探测设备。
在12月8日至10日期间,“毅力号”按照Claude规划的路线,在布满岩石的火星表面行驶了约400米。NASA喷气推进实验室的工程师表示,火星车路线规划原本是项极其精细的工作,操作人员需要结合卫星图像和车载相机数据,像布置“面包屑路径”般逐个设置航点。
为完成此次任务,NASA首先向Claude Code编程代理提供了火星车积累多年的环境数据。模型通过系统化分析,将10米长度的路径段串联成完整路线,并经过多轮评估优化。工程师在指令发送前对规划结果进行了模拟验证,仅根据火星车实地拍摄的图像做了微调。
NASA指出,这项技术将使路线规划时间缩短一半,提升行驶路线的稳定性。科学家因此能安排更多探测任务、收集更丰富的科学数据,大幅提升火星研究效率。
当前NASA正面临人员编制缩减和预算压力,人工智能技术的应用有望缓解资源紧张问题。Anthropic公司表示,其模型在不到一年时间里实现了从运行简单游戏到规划星际路线的跨越式发展。NASA对未来合作充满期待,认为自主人工智能系统将帮助探测器探索太阳系更遥远的区域。
中文翻译:
美国国家航空航天局(NASA)运用Claude人工智能为"毅力号"火星车规划行驶路线。需要澄清的是,这款聊天机器人并未导致毅力号发生故障。
自2021年以来,NASA的毅力号火星车已达成多项历史性成就,包括传回首段火星音频记录。如今,在这颗红色星球着陆近五年后,它又创下新纪录——去年12月,毅力号成功完成了由Anthropic公司Claude聊天机器人规划的耶泽罗陨石坑区域路线,这标志着NASA首次使用大型语言模型来操控这辆汽车大小的探测车。
在12月8日至10日期间,毅力号沿着Claude绘制的路线,在火星表面的岩石区域行驶了约400米(约437码)。可以想见,使用AI模型为毅力号规划路线绝非输入简单指令就能完成。
NASA解释称,即便对人类而言,为毅力号规划路线也非易事。"每次行驶都必须精心规划,否则探测车可能打滑、倾覆、空转轮胎或陷入困境。"因此自着陆以来,地面操作人员始终通过结合太空影像与车载相机画面,以'面包屑路径法'人工标注行进点。
为使Claude完成任务,NASA首先需要向Anthropic编程代理Claude Code提供毅力号"积年累月"的探测数据,随后模型才能开始生成路线方案。Claude通过系统化制图流程,将十米间距的路径点串联成线,并持续进行批判性优化迭代。
鉴于航天任务的特殊性,NASA喷气推进实验室的工程师在向毅力号发送指令前,对模型方案进行了双重核验。团队使用日常模拟系统测试Claude规划的路径点,确保传输指令的精确性。最终NASA仅对路线做出"细微调整",其中一处修正得益于团队掌握了Claude规划时未获取的地表影像。
"工程师估算,采用Claude可将路线规划时间缩减一半,并使行驶过程更稳定。"NASA表示,"减少繁琐人工规划与培训耗时,意味着操作团队能安排更多探测任务、收集更丰富科研数据、开展更深入分析。简而言之,我们将获得更多火星认知。"
尽管AI带来的效率提升常被夸大,但对NASA而言,任何能提升科研效率的工具都备受青睐。今年夏季,因特朗普政府预算削减,该机构裁员约4000人(占总人力20%)。在2026财年预算案中,总统曾提议将NASA科学预算削减近半,该计划于1月初被国会否决。即便资金维持2025年水平,NASA仍面临严峻挑战——当前载人重返月球任务可用人力不足阿波罗计划鼎盛时期的一半。
对Anthropic而言,这无疑是重大突破。去年春季Claude甚至无法通关《宝可梦红版》,而不到一年间,其模型已从难以驾驭简单的8位Game Boy游戏,进阶到能为遥远星球上的探测车规划路线。NASA对未来的合作前景充满期待,指出"自主AI系统将助力探测器探索太阳系更遥远的疆域"。
英文来源:
NASA used Claude to plot a route for its Perseverance rover on Mars
No, the chatbot did not crash Perseverance.
Since 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover has achieved a number of historic milestones, including sending back the first audio recordings from Mars. Now, nearly five years after landing on the Red Planet, it just achieved another feat. This past December, Perseverance successfully completed a route through a section of the Jezero crater plotted by Anthropic's Claude chatbot, marking the first time NASA has used a large language model to pilot the car-sized robot.
Between December 8 and 10, Perseverance drove approximately 400 meters (about 437 yards) through a field of rocks on the Martian surface mapped out by Claude. As you might imagine, using an AI model to plot a course for Perseverance wasn't as simple as inputting a single prompt.
As NASA explains, routing Perseverance is no easy task, even for a human. "Every rover drive needs to be carefully planned, lest the machine slide, tip, spin its wheels, or get beached," NASA said. "So ever since the rover landed, its human operators have painstakingly laid out waypoints — they call it a 'breadcrumb trail' — for it to follow, using a combination of images taken from space and the rover’s onboard cameras."
To get Claude to complete the task, NASA had to first provide Claude Code, Anthropic's programming agent, with the "years" of contextual data from the rover before the model could begin writing a route for Perseverance. Claude then went about the mapping process methodically, stringing together waypoints from ten-meter segments it would later critique and iterate on.
This being NASA we're talking about, engineers from the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made sure to double check the model's work before sending it to Perseverance. The JPL team ran Claude's waypoints through a simulation they use every day to confirm the accuracy of commands sent to the rover. In the end, NASA says it only had to make "minor changes" to Claude's route, with one tweak coming as a result of the fact the team had access to ground-level images Claude hadn't seen in its planning process.
"The engineers estimate that using Claude in this way will cut the route-planning time in half, and make the journeys more consistent," NASA said. "Less time spent doing tedious manual planning — and less time spent training — allows the rover’s operators to fit in even more drives, collect even more scientific data, and do even more analysis. It means, in short, that we’ll learn much more about Mars."
While the productivity gains offered by AI are often overstated, in the case of NASA, any tool that could allow its scientists to be more efficient is sure to be welcome. Over the summer, the agency lost about 4,000 employees – accounting for about 20 percent of its workforce – due to Trump administration cuts. Going into 2026, the president had proposed gutting the agency's science budget by nearly half before Congress ultimately rejected that plan in early January. Still, even with its funding preserved just below 2025 levels, the agency has a tough road ahead. It's being asked to return to the Moon with less than half the workforce it had during the height of the Apollo program.
For Anthropic, meanwhile, this is a major feat. You may recall last spring Claude couldn't even beat Pokémon Red. In less than a year, the company's models have gone from struggling to navigate a simple 8-bit Game Boy game to successfully plotting a course for a rover on a distant planet. NASA is excited about the possibility of future collaborations, saying "autonomous AI systems could help probes explore ever more distant parts of the solar system."
文章标题:美国宇航局利用Claude人工智能为火星上的毅力号探测器规划行进路线。
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